The passive - Easy Learning Grammar Italian

What is the passive?The passive is a verb form that is used when the subject of the verb is the person or thing that is affected by the action, for example, Everyone was shocked by the incident; Two people were hurt; The house is being demolished.

1Using the passive

Verbs can be active or passive.

In a sentence with an active verb the subject of the sentence does the action:

Subject

Active verb

Object

She

does

most of the work.

A dog

bit

him.

In a sentence with a passive verb the action is done by someone or something that is not the subject of the sentence.

Subject

Passive verb

Who/what the action is done by

Most of the work

is done

by her.

He

was bitten

by a dog.

To show who or what is responsible for the action in a passive sentence you use by in English.

You use passive rather than active verbs:

when you want to focus on the person or thing affected by the action John was injured in an accident.

when you don’t know who is responsible for the action My car was stolen last week.

2How to make the passive

In English we use the verb to be with a past participle (is done, was bitten) to make the passive.

In Italian the passive is made in exactly the same way, using essere (meaning to be) and a past participle .

Grammar Extra!venire (meaning to come) and rimanere (meaning to remain) are sometimes used instead of essere to make the passive.venire is used in the present, imperfect, future and conditional to make passives, but not in the perfect or pluperfect.

Quandovengono cambiate?

When are they changed?

Venivano controllati ogni sei mesi.

They were checked every six months.

Verrà criticato da tutti.

He’ll be criticized by everyone.

Verrebbe scoperto.

It would be discovered.

rimanere is used very often with ferito (meaning injured), and with participles describing emotion, such as stupefatto (meaning amazed) and deluso (meaning disappointed).

È rimasto ferito in un incidente stradale.

He was injured in a car accident.

È rimasta stupefatta dalla scena.

She was amazed by the scene.

3Avoiding the passive

Passives are not as common in Italian as they are in English. In many cases, where we would use a passive verb, one of the following alternatives would be used in Italian:

an active construction

Due persone sono morte.

Two people were killed.

Mi hanno rubato la macchina la settimana scorsa.

My car was stolen last week.

C’erano delle microspie nella stanza.

The room was bugged.

Dicono che sia molto ambizioso.

He’s said to be very ambitious.

an ordinary verb made passive by having si put in front (this is known as the si passivante)

Quisi vende il pane.

Bread is sold here.

Si parla inglese.

English spoken.

Dovesi trovano i migliori vini?

Where are the best wines to be found?

In Italia il prosciuttosi mangiacol melone.

In Italy ham is eaten with melon.

Gli spaghetti nonsi mangianocon le dita!

Spaghetti should not be eaten con le dita! with one’s fingers!

“comodo”si scrive con una sola m.

“comodo” is spelled with only one m.

Note that wherever the subject comes in the sentence the verb has to agree with it.

an impersonal construction with si

Si dice che non vada molto bene.

It’s said not to be going very well.

Non si fa così.

That’s not how it’s done.

TipWhen you want to say something like I was told, or She was given use an active construction in Italian: Mi hanno detto (meaning they told me); Le hanno dato (meaning they gave her).